


where the runaways are running the night

by WishingTree



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: F/F, the legends cause trouble for ava but it's bc they're all like a big family, this isn't even worth posting but you know what!! whatever!!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-07
Updated: 2018-04-07
Packaged: 2019-04-19 11:02:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14235867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WishingTree/pseuds/WishingTree
Summary: Ava gets knocked out, and when she wakes up, it’s to a trashed apartment – courtesy of one marooned team of Legends.





	where the runaways are running the night

**Author's Note:**

> Listen, this is dumb, but in my defense, the entire show is dumb, and also ridiculous, and absolutely wonderful in the best possible way
> 
> Title from 'The Greatest Show' from The Greatest Showman;

When Ava wakes up, the first thing she becomes aware of is the taste of blood in her mouth.

The second thing she becomes aware of is that her head really, _really_  hurts. She tries to crack her eyes open, and then immediately slams them shut as the light seems to pierce right through her skull, causing her to let out a groan. That’s the third thing she becomes aware of.

“She’s awake!”

“Ava?”

“Yo, Pantsuit, wake up.”

“Is she alright?”

“Ava, it’s okay, you’re in your apartment, it’s safe now.” 

Ava crinkles her brow at the noise, and if she wasn’t sure that she must have hit her head before, she certainly is now, because the fourth thing? The fourth thing she becomes aware of is that all the Legends seem to be camped out in the middle of her living room.

A sharp command causes all of their voices to fall silent, and then there’s a hand lying gently against her forehead, slowly starting to stroke her hair.

“Ava, can you look at me?” Sara’s voice is quiet, and Ava, not really able to refuse her, cautiously tries to open her eyes again. She’s greeted with the sight of Sara’s face hovering above hers, and Ava sighs in relief when she sees that Sara’s angled herself so that her loose hair blocks most of the light from shining directly into her eyes.

“Hi,” Sara whispers, her cheeks dimpling as she smiles at her, and Ava instinctively smiles back. Her lip stings, and she winces, bringing up a hand. The tip of her finger comes away smudged red, and a look at Sara’s apologetic face confirms that she has a split lip.

“Do you remember what happened?” Amaya asks, popping her head over Sara’s shoulder, and Ava blinks as Sara pulls back to sit next to her, remembering that there are in fact other people in the room.

She’s lying on her couch, in her apartment, except all semblance of neatness and order has disappeared, and Ava takes a moment to despair over the mess.

The thing is, she wouldn’t mind waking up to find Sara here. In fact, she would love it if Sara was hanging around her apartment, because she happens to really like Sara. A lot. More than she’d like to admit, but that’s beside the point. She wouldn’t mind waking up to find Sara here, but she certainly minds waking up to all the Legends.

Wally is rapidly flipping through the pages of one of her books as Nate trips over something, knocking into her coffee table, and Ava sighs. Somebody’s moved her armchair to the other side of the room, and Zari is currently standing on it, hands on her hips.

“Ava?” Sara prompts, and Ava blinks to bring her attention back to her.

“We were in… 2109? And we got into a fight with the – military. They had… sonic cannons?”

Sara nods encouragingly, not stopping where her fingers are carding through Ava’s hair. “Yeah. You’re going to have a killer bruise on your cheek along with your busted lip, and you smacked your head, but you should be okay.” 

Ava tentatively touches the back of her head, wincing when she finds a sore spot. “How long have I been out?” It's dark outside, and she sincerely hopes she hasn’t missed an entire day.

“Three hours,” Sara tells her, checking her phone.

Ava nods and groans again, slowly pushing herself up into a sitting position. Sara helps her lean back against the arm of the couch, adjusting the blanket Ava only just notices is draped over her, and Ava smiles gratefully.

That’s the moment when Sara’s team evidently decides they’ve been quiet long enough, because they all start talking at the same time, their voices overlapping from all corners of the room. Sara gives her an apologetic look and stands to argue with them, grabbing for Mick who has just pulled out his heat gun, and Ava winces as the volume increases, worsening the pounding in her head. 

“Hey, guys?”

Nobody reacts, and she sighs when Ray starts waving his arms around enthusiastically.

“Guys – ” she watches hopelessly, reaching for something she can throw to get their attention, and it’s Mick who notices her efforts, of all people.

“Everybody, shut up!” he yells gruffly, and then turns around and heads for her kitchen. Ava doesn’t have any beer, but she’s pretty sure her wine is going to be gone by the time she gets a chance to check on it.

“Can somebody please tell me what you’re all doing here?” Ava asks, looking around at the Legends gathered around her, “Why aren’t you on the ship?” 

That seems to get their attention, as all of them abruptly stop talking and stare at her with wide eyes. A couple of nervous laughs reach her ears, and Ava knows whatever she’s about to hear isn’t going to lessen her headache even a little bit.

She gives them all her best unimpressed look, waiting for an explanation, and she’s pleased to see them falter.

There’s a lot of jostling as they try to get each other to step forward, some whispering, and then Sara is unceremoniously shoved out of the group huddle towards Ava. She glares over her shoulder and makes a hand gesture that has Nate and Ray paling, and when she turns back to Ava she has a too-wide smile on her face.

“No, don’t try that,” Ava gestures at Sara’s face, “No. Just tell me what happened.” 

Sara blows out a breath and then shrugs sheepishly, raising a hand to scratch the side of her nose. “We, uh, we… lost the Waverider.” 

That’s the last thing Ava expects to hear, surprising her into sitting up from where she’d slumped against the couch. “What? Oh my god, were you attacked? Was it the soldiers we were fighting?” 

Sara raises her hands to calm her down. “No, no, we just… lost it.”

Ava stares at her and then shifts her gaze to the rest of the team, and what follows is an extravagant tale involving a dented time drive, accidentally initiating Gideon’s latest update while they were mid time jump, and somebody leaving the door unlocked when they all disembarked. There’s also talk about a misplaced battle-axe, a sentient teabag, and a stolen shoe, but Ava’s trying to stick to what’s important.

“I get knocked out for three hours, and you do _this_?” 

“Gideon’s still in contact, doing her repairs, so she should be able to send us a location in a couple hours!” Sara says earnestly, “Until then, the Waverider is just kind of… floating through the time vortex somewhere. We think.” 

Ava brings up a hand to rub at her temples and closes her eyes, deciding it isn’t worth the effort to get into it.

“Okay, you know what – ”

She stops, suddenly realizing what’s missing from this situation. She’s sitting on her couch, and her cat hasn’t tackled her yet, the one thing that always, always happens when she’s home. Which leads to the conclusion… 

“What have you idiots done to my cat,” she sighs, rubbing her forehead and doing her best not to chew on her split lip.

“I’ll find it!” Wally volunteers, disappearing in a burst of wind and lightning, and he’s back a second later, holding out a yowling ball of fur. His hair is in a disarray as he tries to dodge flailing claws, and Ava almost laughs when he darts forward to deposit the cat on the couch with a harried expression on his face. The cat curls up in Ava’s arms, hissing at the Legends around her, and Ava feels a strange sense of pride. 

Unfortunately, that feeling only lasts as long as it takes Amaya to brighten and crouch down to her level, because her backstabbing cat immediately calms down ands stands to walk over Ava’s stomach, right into Amaya’s open hands.

“Traitor,” Ava sighs, letting herself sink back down into the couch. Amaya is beaming as she stands with the cat in her arms, rubbing her face against her fur, and Ava jumps mid eye roll when Zari appears on the other side of the couch.

“You know there isn’t a single 24-hour pizza place anywhere in delivery range of your apartment?” Zari tells her, perching herself along the back of the couch above Ava’s feet, “What were you thinking when you chose this place? I mean, come on.” 

“Pizza wasn’t very high on my list, Zari,” Ava says, voice straining to remain patient, but she’s pretty sure her eye is twitching.

The Legends have started to disperse, spreading out through her apartment, though Ava is grateful to see that her bedroom door down the hall is still closed. Sara is waltzing around acting as if she knows the place like the back of her hand, which Ava knows isn’t true because she’s been here all of two times, and they had both been… otherwise occupied during those visits. She’s poking around looking for something, and Ava’s gaze shifts to her bookshelf, which is now holding approximately half the books it’s supposed to be. The rest are lying on the floor, some open with bookmarks stuck in them, and her hall light is unscrewed and lying on the coffee table, for some reason.

Mick is growling something, poking Nate in the chest with his heat gun, but thankfully Ray hurries over and gets him to lower it, preventing whatever escalation would have resulted from that.

Sara returning with a bottle of water distracts her, and she takes it gratefully. As she drinks, Sara carefully lifts Ava’s legs so she can sit on the end of the couch, draping them over her own lap once she’s settled. Her hand lands on Ava’s ankle, and the warm press of her skin comforting. Ava’s eyes flutter shut, but her peace lasts maybe a minute until the sounds of Mick and Nate arguing start filtering into the room again.

“Your team is ruining my apartment,” Ava says flatly, and Sara scoffs, waving a hand.

“Nah, what are you talking about? It’s fine!” 

There’s a crash from behind her, and Ava grimaces, squeezing her eyes shut. The sound that follows can only be described as a minor explosion, and Ava drops her forehead down onto the couch cushion.

“Sorry, my fault!” Ray’s voice calls out from the kitchen, “Nobody’s hurt, we’re all okay!” 

“See? Everything’s fine,” Sara says cheerfully, and Ava groans, keeping her head down.

“My apartment is a wreck, Rory is two seconds away from burning down the building, and Dr. Palmer has already decimated my kitchen.” Sara opens her mouth to protest, and Ava raises an eyebrow as she continues. “I don’t even want to know what Dr. Heywood is doing over there, plus I totally saw Zari messing with my home entertainment system. Also I think Amaya is planning to steal my cat.” She waves her hand over at where Zari and Amaya are sitting next to each other on the floor, Zari munching on a bag of chips Ava doesn’t recognize and Amaya cooing over the cat curled up in her lap.

“What? Amaya wouldn’t – ” Sara stops and thinks about it. “Okay, well, maybe – That’s not the point!”

“No, the point is that I’m getting you all out of here before it’s too late, because god help us, my head is killing me and there’s only so much of your team’s antics I can take on a _good_  day. Please get me my laptop.” 

Sara’s got a grin on her face, the fond one she gets sometimes when she finds something particularly amusing, and Ava attempts to fight the answering smile trying to spread across her face, refusing to let her annoyance fade. Her efforts are for naught when Sara wriggles out from under Ava’s legs, pressing a kiss to her temple and lightly touching the bruise blooming on her face, because the smile grows anyways. The press of Sara’s fingers ghosts fleetingly against her skin, and a swell of emotion rises in Ava’s chest as she watches her disappear into the bedroom and quickly reappear with her laptop.

It takes Ava almost half an hour and a little help from a bemused Zari, but using her time courier and Sara’s earpiece, she’s able to track the signal back to the drifting Waverider and open a portal onto the bridge.

“Okay,” she sighs in relief, “I saved your ship, now get out of my house.” She points at the portal and narrows her eyes at the Legends, waving off their cheers even as she feels her cheeks heating up at the praise.

“Alright, alright, keep it moving,” she grumbles, taking a look around to remind herself of her aggravation. They dutifully troop through, and Sara is last, not even pretending to head towards the portal as she spins to face Ava.

Ava expects her to spout some ridiculous joke, or inappropriate innuendo, or just some idea that should never see the light of day, but what she says is actually much softer.

“You want to come get checked out by Gideon?” Sara hooks her thumb over her shoulder towards the time portal and steps forward so she can sit on the coffee table across from Ava, brushing off crumpled Kleenex and food wrappers. “Just, you know, to make sure you’re okay?”

Ava smiles, wincing again as the motion pulls at her split lip. “It’s fine, I’m fine. And no offense, but I need to not be near your team for a while. I just want a nap.” 

Sara gives Ava a lopsided grin and reaches out to cup her jaw, putting her hand on the side of her neck. “It was stupid of you to tackle that guy,” she says softly, and Ava brings up her hand to hold her wrist.

“No, it was the logical thing to do,” Ava corrects her, “He was coming up behind you, and I know you could have taken him out, but he would have gotten in a couple good shots first. So I took care of it.”

Sara hums, her expression a mix of affection and exasperation, but her eyes shine with something deeper, something Ava is afraid to try and understand. Ava blinks, and Sara leans forward to press her lips against the uninjured corner of Ava’s mouth, whispering, “Still stupid.”

This time Ava doesn’t try to stop the happy smile from spreading across her face. “I think that’s my line.”

Sara shrugs and presses another quick kiss to her lips. “So, a nap, huh?” She pulls back and leans her elbows on her knees. “I’m actually very good at taking naps, I’ll have you know.”

“Is that so,” Ava laughs when Sara wiggles her eyebrows at her exaggeratedly. “Is that you saying you might be interested in staying to take a nap with me?”

“Wow, thanks for the invitation Ava, I’d love to stay and take a nap with you!” Sara says enthusiastically, bouncing to her feet and going to stick her head through the portal. Ava doesn’t hear what she says to her team, but she’s still smiling when she pulls back and picks up Ava’s time courier to close it.

“I’m serious about it being a nap though, my head is actually killing me,” Ava warns, and Sara shrugs, an easy smile on her face.

“I know. You want help getting to your room or do you just want to stay here?”

Ava glances down and then at her bedroom door, and the distance suddenly seems insurmountable. “I think I’d rather just stay here, actually, but I don’t know how you – ”

Without waiting for her to finish the sentence, Sara tugs her down to fully lie on the couch and then gracefully clambers over Ava’s body, managing to wedge herself between her and the back of the couch. She settles against her side, throwing an arm over Ava’s waist, and sighs in satisfaction.

“Less talking, more napping,” Sara mumbles, already closing her eyes and resting her head against Ava’s shoulder. She stays there a moment before tucking her face into Ava’s neck, and Ava doesn’t know what to do with herself, even after all this time. Her arm is pinned under Sara’s body and sure to go numb very soon, but Ava can’t bring herself to care.

“You’re helping me fix this mess when we wake up, by the way,” Ava sighs, letting her eyes slide shut. Sara makes a noncommittal sound and snuggles closer, and Ava cracks an eye open. “Sara. It was your disaster team that messed this whole place up. You’re helping me clean.”

“Shh. We’re supposed to be napping.”

“Sara – ”

“Nope.”

“I mean it – ”

“Sleep,” Sara grumbles, tightening her arm around Ava’s waist, and Ava thinks about it for a moment before giving up and closing her eyes.

They can finish this tomorrow.

**Author's Note:**

> EDIT (thank you to ClaDanvers for the reminder):  
> Amaya totally stole the cat. Ava doesn't realise she's missing until the next night, and then demands that Sara help her search the Waverider. It takes them four hours to find her and then another two to catch her. The team is zero help.


End file.
